The Techies Call It "Transactional Messaging"

An online purchase, she says, "creates the perfect opportunity for you to market directly to the consumer at a key point of engagement. Every retailer should capitalize on the order confirmations, shipping notifications, and other transactional email messages that are sent as part of the online order process and market to recent purchase."

Ah, so there it is. Use your transaction to talk up another sale. Here are some suggestions from Blank:

-- Recommend additional products or services the customer might want or need. Highlight them in a section of your transactional email titled, "You Might Also Like."    

-- Include an offer to subscribe to your newsletter (You have one, right?)

In some cases, Blank says, these transactional messages can account for as much as 15 percent of total email marketing sales. Hmm. If nothing else here got your attention, perhaps that last comment did.

More on this tomorrow.